Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I hear some comments from afar, somewhere over there, about running a business. The reason we don't trust the government and we can't trust the government on this is that there seems to be a last-minute, road-to-Damascus conversion on labour-market testing. At least St Paul believed it.

We get an insight into what the government really thinks from their good friends at ACCI, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. They say in their submission—and at least they're honest, unlike the government—that labour-market testing is 'akin to asking employers to walk through wet cement'. They say that it is time-consuming to even advertise, when the employer knows through past experience—sometime in the past in recent years—that there's no-one available. So ACCI's submission says honestly: 'Abolish all labour-market testing. Just get rid of it.' At least that's honest. It's bad policy, but at least it's honest. We urge the government to accept the amendments. They don't impose anything that's unreasonable and they allow the minister to colour his instrument however he likes.

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